


Further Favors

by carolinecrane



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-26
Updated: 2010-09-26
Packaged: 2017-10-12 05:27:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/121290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolinecrane/pseuds/carolinecrane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beware Greeks bearing gifts.  Preslash.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Further Favors

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 'thank you' challenge at the morganreid LJ comm.

_Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors._ \-- Francois de la Rochefoucauld

"What's this?"

"It's a thank you?" His voice lifted at the end of the sentence, a simple statement managing to sound like a question, and he felt his face color. "For the help. With my father."

"Reid, you know I've always got your back. This isn't necessary."

"Historically speaking, it is," Spencer said. "The Greeks exchanged gifts regularly, to repay past services and also to indebt the receiver to the gift giver. Often gifts were used as bribes as well; the expression 'beware Greeks bearing gifts', for instance, is a reference to the Trojan Horse."

"So you're saying if I open this, I owe you one?" Morgan asked, and when he laughed Spencer blushed even deeper.

"By nature a thank you gift implies repayment of service," Spencer said, his voice a little higher than it had been a moment ago. He hadn't really imagined how this would go, exactly; when he decided to get Morgan something it had just felt like the right thing to do, but he'd never been any good at these types of things. "Look, it's nothing. Just give it back and we'll forget all about it."

"No take-backs," Morgan said, still grinning as he held the envelope out of Spencer's reach. "Didn't your mother ever tell you that?"

"She didn't spend a lot of time on social niceties," Spencer answered, but Morgan wasn't listening. He was too busy tearing the envelope open, pulling a thin white card out and reading it once, then again. His forehead furrowed as he read, and when he got to the bottom for the second time, he looked up at Spencer.

"Reid, this is...you didn't have to do this."

"It's a good cause," Spencer said, as though that was a perfectly reasonable excuse to make a donation in Morgan's name. The fact that he'd chosen the community center where Morgan spent so much time as a kid...well, it just made sense. But the truth was Spencer didn't know _why_ he'd done it. There had been no reason to; Morgan hadn't expected a thank you for doing his job, even if it wasn't technically his job to stay in Vegas and help Spencer exorcise childhood demons.

It was only as much as Spencer would have done had the roles been reversed; in fact, he had done the same for Morgan back in Chicago, which was the only reason he even knew about the community center in the first place. Which meant, at least according to the Greek model, that Morgan had just been repaying a debt, and now he technically _was_ indebted to Spencer again. Not that Spencer was about to point that out when he was pretty sure his face was about to burst into flames.

"Thanks, kid," Morgan said, staring at Spencer in that intense way he usually reserved for suspects. "It means a lot."

Spencer shrugged and turned back to his own desk, for once wishing for a serial killer so Morgan would stop looking at him. He looked down at his desk and shuffled a few papers, then glanced back up again and yeah, Morgan was still watching.

"So what'd you get Rossi?"

"Nothing," Spencer answered, and he could feel his forehead crease when he frowned. "It was your idea to stay. Rossi just backed you up because Hotch told him to."

"Hotch tell you that?" Morgan asked, and now he just looked suspicious.

"No," Spencer answered. "You were the only one I told about my dreams, it had to be your idea. Why, do you think I should have gotten Rossi something?"

Morgan laughed the way he did whenever Spencer went on too long about physics or Star Trek or one of his mom's favorite works of literature. He shook his head and tucked the card into his desk drawer, then he looked up at Spencer again. "I think you should do whatever feels right, kid."

And that was the whole problem, because Spencer was never a hundred percent sure what felt right when it came to Morgan. He'd never been good at interpersonal relationships, but with Morgan the rules were somehow even more complicated. Morgan took a few steps forward, crossing the space between their desks to rest a hand on Spencer's shoulder. He squeezed briefly before he let go, leaving behind a warmth that Spencer couldn't explain away entirely by maximum body temperatures.

"For the record, I mean it when I say I've always got your back. You just say the word."

Then he was gone, leaving Spencer to frown into the space where he'd been standing and wonder what he'd just started, and whether or not he'd be able to finish it.


End file.
